Finding Home
by MajourOrtho
Summary: Young spy Rebel Farley is sent to investigate on the mutagen. But will she find something more? A family, perhaps? NOT A ROMANCE I DO NOT OWN TMNT.
1. Finding courage

Shelby Reedsworth paced back and forth across the training room floor-dojo, as his student called it. He checked his watch for the third time.

8:45, precisely. PM. At that moment, his pupil walked in-immaculate timing, as always. He smiled to himself. He never had any reason to worry about her.

Rebel Farley stood 4 feet 7 inches tall, shorter than most 13 year old girls. Her dark brown hair was tied up in a topknot at the back of her head, as always. Her soft green eyes looked at him questioningly. Though small, she was one of the best spies that worked for doubleye intel.

"You called, Shelby?"

* * *

Shelby watched her go, later on. She had watched the briefing silently, but having known her all her life, he knew she looked worried and a little apprehensive, not afraid, but surprised and worried all the same. The reason was perfectly clear, defined in three words that would put the faint-hearted in fear: Giant Mutant Turtles. As if that weren't enough, Giant Mutant NINJA turtles. Laugh if you must, but it was true.

Doubleye needed Rebel to investigate the sewers, grill the turtles subtly without outright scaring them, find out about a strange substance detected in NYC. A type of mutagen, as the scientists at DI called it. It mutated things. Riley Herbert had tried pouring it on a frog and placing a dove feather on top, and produced a frog-bird. The substance was lethal if ingested, dangerous to say the least. DI needed more information.

So it sent its top agent to interrogate victims of the chemical themselves.

Shelby just hoped the creatures didn't hurt Rebel. She was his top agent, and his pride and joy, raised by DI from a baby. He did not want to lose her. Even though consenting to be a spy meant accepting the fact that there were bigger things than you, and if you died it was for a greater cause, Rebel was special. All lives were.

* * *

Rebel pulled her pack over her back, tightened the strap of fabric around her head. The sewers? Why would she go to the sewers?

The answer came to her at once. To hide, of course. Rebel was a smart girl, and she knew these kinds of things. She had survived explosions and samurais and wolf attacks and bungee jumping-without a bungee cord-and all kinds of other stuff.

Still.

Giant Mutant Ninja Turtles? Just teenagers, but...

Still!

She planned to strike at about six in the morning-the waking time of her number one prey. First, to find this so-called Lair that Shelby had given her a map to. She had memorized it already, but kept it in her pack just in case, and headed to the nearest manhole.

Now Rebel was not a girly-girl. In fact, she was rather a tomboy. But even a grown man would recoil at the scent of this place. Rebel slipped a breath mint into her mouth to distract herself and tried not to think about what sewers were used for.


	2. Finding a dog

Sorry for the chapter delay! I hurt my arm and haven't been able to type.

* * *

Rebel squeezed behind the scratched-up fridge to watch the kitchen, just as a yawning turtle walked in, presumably ready for breakfast. She recalled her briefing.

Subject: Leonardo Hamato.

Age: 15.

Occupation: Leader.

Perfect. She'd seen in person what she was up against, her first item of the day. The next was to figure when and where they would go that night.

After the first turtle had gotten breakfast, the other three walked in. The red-bandana'd one seemed excited.

Subject: Raphael Hamato.

Age: 15.

Occupation: Hothead.

"So where are we going tonight?"

"I don't know, Raph! We're just going over Manhattan. Nowhere specific," answered Leonardo.

Perfect.

When the brothers left for the dojo- a REAL dojo- Rebel crept away from the lair. Next thing to do: Make her way to the abandoned warehouse that served as the Shredder's lair.

* * *

Time: 10:00 pm.

Location: Abandoned Warehouse in Manhattan, aka Shredder's Lair. (And why must it always be a abandoned warehouse? She wondered.)

Present Activity: Feeling body fall asleep from being squeezed behind this junk all day.

Future plans: Get in, get it done, get out. That is what you always put under future plans, when you're a spy.

Rebel looked out from behind the boxes she had been hiding behind all day. Yes, since 7:00 this morning. Ouch. The huge dog thing was curled in a ball on the floor of the storage room not 5 yards away. Perfect...it was all going according to plan. Mentally, she laughed evilly. Muhahaha.

She crept out from behind the boxes and stretched her limbs silently. 15 HOURS. 15 HOURS spent hiding behind a box, waiting for the chance when all desired events would line up perfectly in order to complete the sequence, and over all, get the job done quickly and effectively. Those sewer kid creeps she could deal with, but these guys she just wanted to be done with. And if she did this right, she could kill two birds with one stone.

"Cyber-pack, dispense syringe", she hissed. The specialized backpack gave a hissing sound as a small syringe appeared in a slot on its side. Rebel needed a blood sample from the freak in front of her. The fish had been taken care of already, using stealth. This mission...would not use stealth. She would not slide the syringe carefully under the skin of the dog, nor slowly draw blood. She would not be careful not to wake it. She would not carefully withdraw the syringe and creep away unnoticed.

No. She jammed the syringe hard into the dog's...arm? And hurriedly pulled the handle. She yanked it out as the dog roared in pain and rose to its feet. Perfect. Sprinting with the ease of 13 years of training, Rebel raced through the facility. The lumbering canine charged after her, awakening foot ninjas and probably Shredder as well. If all went according to plan the turtles should be somewhere nearby. If they went along with the pattern of PSA-Previously Studied Activity-and patrolled clockwise around Manhattan, staring around 9:30, they should be here soon, unless unplanned delays happened along the way. They were bound to; this part of Manhattan was crawling with gangs. And so Rebel led the enemy counterclockwise, towards where the turtles should be now.

If for some reason things did not go according to plan, Rebel would take out the freak and the foot on her own and try the same tactic later or a different one. You always come prepared. Prepared for an adrenaline-generating chase through the night. Prepared for the thrill of moon-chilled air rushing towards you, feet pounding on streets lit by run-down street lights.

Rebel gave a whoop as the chase continued on into the night.


	3. Finding a fight

Leonardo lifted his head as an earsplitting shriek filled the New York air. "What was that?"

"I don't know...somebody screaming?" Raph suggested.

Leo shot him a glare. "Come on. Let's go check it out."

As the rounded the corner, a strange sight met their eyes.

A girl.

Being chased by the Foot.

And worst of all, Dogpound.

But instead of a look of horror, a thrilled look showed on her face.

_She has no idea what she's up against._

As she reached them, her thrilled look changed to surprise. "What are _you_?"

She skidded to a stop and turned. Dogpound was still charging towards her. She dove underneath him. Emerging unscathed behind him, she gave his tail a yank. He roared and turned to charge again. But at the last minute, she dove towards the side of a building, clinging to some nondescript fingerhold, and Dogpound crashed into the ranks of still-charging Foot Clan.

Whoa. Leo stood in shocked silence. She was a ninja, just like them. She was fighting Dogpound. And she was winning.

And she was a _girl_.

"We're not getting shown up by a girl!" Mikey protested.

Springing off the side of the building, she landed on Dogpound's back as he rose. He roared in fury again and spun, trying to shake her off. Finally, Doggy instinct took over, and he flopped over to roll on the ground, but she jumped off as he fell, and he crashed into the Foot ninjas again, who had just gotten up after his last accidental attack. On the edge of the chaos, the strange girl was laughing.

Then Dogpound rose again, towering over her. She was backed against the side of the building. Bad place to be. But Mikey launched a nunchaku just in time to distract the canine, who whirled immediately. Mikey squealed and took off running. Once Dogpound was clear of the scene, though, the Foot clan came in for an attack. Still backed against the wall, the girl looked hopeless. But then she sprang, high into the air, landing with a muffled thump in the midst of the foot clan.

Suddenly she was a whirling, twirling mass, a tornado of limbs. Foot ninjas fell left and right. All the Leo could do was stand awestruck, while Raph grew more frustrated by the minute at being shown up BY A GIRL, and Donnie tried to identify the form of martial art she was using.

It was not until the last of the black-clad twerps fell that Leo was able to snap out of it. The girl stood in the midst of it all, barely out of breath, surrounded by fallen bodies.

Then Leo realized that only three brothers stood on the edge of the battlefield. "Mikey! Where is he?"

"Probably being chased by Dogpound", Donnie theorized.

"Oh no! That little kid!" The girl facepalmed. "Why. Why did I have to get that kid mixed up in this."

With that, she swung up the fire escape and raced across the rooftops in the direction Mikey and his canine friend had taken.


	4. Finding a sister

By the time Leo, Donnie, and Raph rounded the second corner, the girl was heading back toward them. Mikey stumbled along behind her, his bandanna tails held in her fist.

"Here's-your-brother-gotta-go-catch-the-dog-BYE!" She yelled, and then headed off in the direction she'd come from.

"Ohhhh, wait a minute", said Raph. "We're not getting shown up by that girl again! We've got to follow her."

"Well, I guess we do owe her one for saving Mikey," Leo reasoned.

"Yeah, and if Dogpound manages to trap her against another building, there's no telling whether she'll make it out of there alive!" Donnie added.

And so, with this reasoning, the four brothers set out into the night.

* * *

Rebel felt like laughing. It was working. It was really working! There would be no need for do-overs or plan-changing or retreat. No, she would not be handing the mission over to Top League again. This time, it was working.

So far, that is.

Feeling lucky, Rebel sprang off the side of a building and onto Dogpound's back, clinging tightly to the large spiked clusters of hair that ran down his back. He roared and spun, this time not falling to the ground as he had before. Rebel imagined how surprised the turtle freaks must feel, coming around the corner to have their eyes met with this sight. And her speculation was confirmed when a startled "Whoa!" sounded from the nearby alleyway.

Now to send this puppy home to his daddy.

Springing hard from the dog's shoulders, Rebel slammed down hard onto his neck, a pressure point that knocked him out cold, and leapt to the ground as he fell, so as not to risk getting crushed under his weight.

"Sleep well, Hachiko."

She stood over the unconscious dog, a triumphant smile on her face, able to feel the astounded stares of the turtles on her back.

Now to impress upon their sympathy.

She turned after a moment, letting her eyes catch the moonlight for a dramatic effect. "Oh. I thought you were gone."

"No," said the first guy. Leonardo. "We came to see if you needed help."

She gave a low chuckle. "No. I didn't."

"Yeah, we saw, that was-"

"REALLY REALLY COOL!" Shouted a voice from behind the leader. Rebel remembered his voice recording from the briefing. Yes, they did offer voice recordings. The first rule of being a spy was, Be prepared for anything.

Subject: Michelangelo Hamato

Age: Unspecified

Occupation: Bonehead

Weakness: Pizza

He was reported to be enthusiastic. Nutty. They didn't want to say it, but, Dumb. Their wording was "Small attention span, extensive sense of humor, reduced number of brain cells."

"Why thank you", Rebel answered.

Another voice sounded from the alley.

"What form of martial arts were you using? I couldn't identify it!"

Ah. Michelangelo's polar opposite.

Subject: Donatello Hamato

Age: 15

Occupation: Nerd

Weakness: Coffee

Reported to be a nerd, a geek. Or in the agency's words, "Extremely intelligent, good with mechanics. Information-hungry constantly."

"Well, my dear freak, that was just a little of everything plus a little of nothing."

"Oooooh..." She obviously had him stumped there.

"I had best be going."

"Wait, wait", objected Leonardo, the sensible one. "Why were you fighting Dogpound in the first place?"

"Oh, you mean Hachiko over here?"

"Yeah."

"Well-" What story to use? She took into account the 5th rule of spying. The best lies are truth based. "-I stole something from him."

"What-his kibble?" snickered Raphael.

"Yeah. Something like that."

"Wait-really?"

"It was nice to meet you," Leonardo conveniently interrupted, saving her from elaborating further. "We were wondering if you wanted to be our ally-"

"We were?"

Leonardo ignored his brother. "-because we sort of hate those guys, too, and-"

"SORT of?"

"RAPH! QUIT INTERRUPTING!-and we could use your help. You were a great fighter out there tonight."

"Well, I guess it wouldn't be so bad having somebody to watch my back. " It was working, it was SO working.

"Okay."

"Just call on me if you need me."

"What's your cell phone number?" Donatello inquired.

"Don't have one."

"Okay, what's your full name?"

"Reba." That followed the 5th rule perfectly.

"Reba..."

"Just Reba."

"Where can we find you if we need you?"

"Find me? What do you mean?"

"I mean, where do you live?"

"Oh, you know..." Rebel did her best to look uncomfortable, "Around."

"Wait-you mean you don't have anywhere to live?" Leonardo was acting true to his reported nature: Compassionate.

"Uh...yeah. Kind of," Rebel chuckled awkwardly. She was one of the best actors at doubleye.

"We have room at our place, you could stay there!" Michelangelo blurted. The outright type, says his ideas without thinking how others might react, Rebel recalled.

"Oh-no, that's okay, I've always been alright by myself. I don't want to intrude on your home."

"But we live in the sewers! There's plenty of room there!"

"Mikey", Leonardo reminded him gently, "What she has already might be better than the sewers."

"But we've got like-furniture, and stuff! And a FRIDGE!"

Yeah, I know, thought Rebel. I was crammed behind it for an hour this morning.

"That's really sweet. All I have is a bunch of boxes piled together." Boxes brought back bad memories of being squished against a wall for over 12 hours.

"SEEEEE?" Michelangelo said enthusiastically.

"Well, if she wants to, Mikey."

"You know, that would be nice, but I don't want to intrude."

"No, no, that's fine. Mikey made the offer already. It wouldn't be fair to renounce it."

"Well..." Rebel pretended to think it over.

"PLEASE! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!"

"NO WAY AM I-"

"Raaaph, be QUIET!"

Haha. One wants a friend, the other's reluctant to sacrifice personal space.

"Okay."

"YES!" Michelangelo ran out and hugged her.

The huggy type. Very affectionate, recalled Rebel.

And so they set off towards what would be her home for as long as it took to get her job done.

She only hoped it wouldn't take too long.


	5. Finding a report

For any of you who are confused, Rebel-erm, Reba-is a good guy. At the moment she's neutral, but will soon switch over to be fully "good guy!" she has nothing against the turtles, but would not risk her life for them as of yet. If you are curious about what I mean, well, I guess you'll just have to keep reading. XD

* * *

All moved in. Slight friendship established. Personalities verified and further acknowledged. Was there more she could do today?

Rebel wondered all of this as she lay on the mat in her room, at the lair, where she would be staying for as long as it took to get all the information.

All the turtles were asleep. She had accomplished her mission for today.

* * *

Rebel woke the next morning and was reading a magazine on the couch as Leo came in.

"Oh, hi Reba. How long've you been up?"

" 'While."

Leo accepted this vague response. "Want breakfast?"

"Sure...or I could find something on my own. I usually go to a donut place early for breakfast."

"Okay."

In truth, Rebel wanted to meet with Shelby Reedsworth and share her current discoveries.

Rule number 7 of being a spy: Share your discoveries with your commanding officer frequently.

As soon as she exited the lair, she voice-activated the comm-link disguised as an ear cuff and commanded it to contact Shelby Reedsworth.

Shelby stood as Rebel entered his office and offered her a seat. "God morning, agent Rebel. I trust you've found some useful information...?"

With a smile, Rebel plugged in her recently issued MUO-651, MUO standing for Multi-use Orb and 651 standing for the model, the latest, of course.

Immediately, images, soundtracks, video, and other data was streaming from a folder in the MUO and onto the transparent holograph screen rising from the center of Reedsworth's desk. More recent images of the turtles and their father, to be used for later missions involving the same subjects. Pictures and video of the lair, of the Shredder, his dog and fish, his soldiers. Soundtracks of voices and even the rap music that put Raphael to sleep at night, somehow.

Shelby looked on in approval. The MUO had effectively captured life-like, non-blurry images, video fit to grace an HD screen, and audio as clear as glass.

"You did a very efficient job." The 6th rule of being a spy: Always be efficient.

"Now Rebel, have you found anything else?"

With a pleased smile, Rebel produced the 2 blood samples she had snagged form the warehouse the night before.

"Thank you. We'll run tests on these in the lab... I trust you are open to a lot of useful information? Because if the mission does not support our cause we will withdraw, as you well know."

"I don't think withdrawal will be necessary, Shelby...The behavior of the subjects should be very informatory. Their likes and dislikes could be altered by the presence of mutagen in their DNA."

"Good thinking, Rebel...I think a behavior study is in order. You have all the needed supplies in your backpack?"

"Affirmative."

"Thank you for the information. You are dismissed."

Rebel walked out the door as their brief discussion concluded. Outside of missions, she and Reedsworth were rather close, having known each other since Rebel had appeared at III as a baby. But in business, it was essential to be brief so you could get back to the matter at hand. Such was mission life at III.

With business concluded, Rebel began to get hungry, so she stopped by the breakfast bar on the way out. On a whim, she snatched a donut. After all, if the best lies are based on truth, why not base the truth on lies?


	6. Finding feelings

Rebel returned home to the lair at about 7:00 in the morning, a donut in her hand, wrapped in a napkin. Only Leo was up still.

"Oh, hi, Leo. I brought you a donut."

"Cool! I'd like to check out that place sometime... I'll wear a disguise. Don't worry."

"Ummm...ok?"

"How about tomorrow?"

"They're closed on Fridays", Said Rebel quickly.

"Oh. Saturday?"

"I guess..."

Rebel passed the rest of the day showing the boys what she could do, studying their reactions to stimuli that would affect the behavior of turtles, trying to figure out how being mutated changed them.

At the end of the day, the teenage spy was beginning to get frustrated. She didn't know much about turtles, and wasn't able to deduce anything from what she'd seen that day. She sat on the couch, brooding over the day's observations.

"Hey, dudette!" She was startled out of her thoughts by Michelangelo.

"Oh. Hi, Michelangelo."

"Dudette, I told you you can call me Mikey."

"Okay, Mikey. What's up?" She inquired, boredom apparent in her voice.

"Well...I just pranked the jello. BAD", Mikey whispered confidentially. Rebel gave him a look which meant, Weirdo, and said, "Well, I'll be sure not to eat any of it then."

"SHHHh! Keep your voice down! I don't want anybody finding out!"

"Okay, okay." Rebel abandoned trying to figure the turtles out and instead resorted to how she would make Leo forget about the donut shop.

Dinnertime rolled around. Michelangelo giggled all through supper, and when he finally pulled the jello out of the fridge, red bits of something floated in it.

"What's in the jello, Mikey?" Donnie demanded.

"Candy", answered Mikey. Leo accepted a plateful and seemed to like it, but everybody else spat theirs out.

"WHAT KIND OF CANDY?" Raph roared.

"BACON!" Mikey howled, and got chased around the lair by a furious Raph.

Leo spewed his jello out on the table. Luckily Donnie and Rebel ducked just in time, but Donnie, being taller, caught some of the spray on the back of his shell. "Oh, ewwwww!" While Leo wasn't looking, Donnie murderously tipped the remains of his jello into Leo's drink.

As Mikey rocketed past for another lap and Leo suspiciously smelled his coke with bad results, Rebel began to laugh.

For spies, laughter is a serious thing. You learn to hold it in to hide weakness and to let it out for fake performances. You learn to keep your reaction to humor cooped up in your brain until funny happenings just don't affect you anymore. But something was different here. Rebel didn't know why, but tonight she felt better than she had in a long time.

She had a flashback...a deja vu moment. When she had been 4 years old and put a pancake on Coby Oko's head, which was bad because he was one of the highest officials in doubleye...and Shelby had not been able to contain his laughter. It had been a moment just like this, one of the many dispersed throughout her childhood when her and Shelby had seemed like a real family for a few brief moments.

She went to bed wondering why her mind had made the association at that precise moment in time, because surely for every action there is a cause.


	7. Finding a sample

I'm apparently in a big-word, serious-author, be-very-practical mood right now, and thought it was a good time to write a spy story! Here we go!

And the jello-bacon thing actually happened-this guy at Mr. Gatti's actually did that, and ate it, and then Brianna put it in the remains of Carlos' coke and made me smell it. It was really really funny.

* * *

Rebel woke the next morning still in a state of puzzlement over the previous night's happenings. But she had Reedsworth to report to.

She was afraid, a little. Concerned about what to tell him. She was the best spy Doubleye possessed under the age of 15, and even her advanced mind had not deciphered behavioral patterns yet...perhaps the mutagen had maintained only the reptilian appearance and not the behavior. Yet some of their preferences were formed to that of turtles in the wild...coincidence? Surely not...

She puzzled these things as she walked down the hall, the former evening's strange deja vu sense banished from her mind by thoughts of turtles and also helped along by Leo, still ranting about his ruined coke.

She was jerked rather rudely out of her thoughts by Leo shaking her.

"Whaaat? Quit with the shaking! NO TOUCHY!" She brushed him off, quoting the Great Emperor Kuzco in the process, quite pleased with herself for doing so.

"Sorry. But you didn't answer when I poked you. I was saying, where are you going for breakfast-since that place is closed?"

"Pancake place. But you can't come anyway, you got grounded for today for yelling at Donnie! Really meanly!"

"Oh yeah", he said, his face falling. Well, that got one problem off her shoulders. Now there was just Shelby to deal with.

She evaded his curiousity-where was the pancake place? Was she sure it was safe? Did they have blueberry ones? Could she bring him back one?-and headed out the door of the lair.

When she reached the agency, she showed Shelby the most recent footage, and quite to her relief, the results were sent to the lab and she escaped admonishment. However, a much more difficult task was placed before her: obtain a blood sample from each of the mutants in the sewer, this including Master Splinter.

Apparently the scientists at doubleye wondered if the varying heights of the mutants was related to the varying amounts of human and animal DNA, and no, just DNA samples wouldn't work. It had to be BLOOD.

And so, she tackled the easiest of the 5 mutants: Michelangelo.

Mikey was asleep in his room. She crept down the hall, armed with an enormous syringe. Unfortunately, Leo caught her in the act and hasty concealment of the syringe was necessary.

Leo would NOT STOP PESTERING HER.

"What do you want, Leo?"

"What are you doing?"

"I...was...going to...check...on Mikey?"

"Why?"

"Well I heard...some noises...and I wanted to... make sure he wasn't...uh...having a bad dream?" She finished lamely and hoped the blue-masked turtle would buy it.

"You don't want to go in there. It's like you can't even see the floor, like stuff a foot deep. And I bet there's, like, a land mine under there somewhere-"

"I'll be fine. Really. GO AWAY."

"Are you okay?" He reached out a tentative hand.

"NO TOUCHY!"

"Okay, okay!" He left, his pride and feelings somewhat hurt.

She opened the door. Wow. Leo hadn't been exaggerating. Well, maybe a little, but it was a MESS in here, and she wasn't even going to start on the smell.

Mikey lay asleep on the bed, pretzels and what looked like a dead fish scattered around him. "Ew", she whispered in spite of herself.

She managed to get the blood sample with only a small moan from Mikey, but then the dead fish on the bed..._moved._

It was still alive. Rebel gave a horrendous shriek and stumbled backwards over a pile of clothes-clothes? Why clothes?-and left the room.

Then Leo was there again, and she hastily hid the syringe. "WHAT?"

"I just wanted to know what happened!"

"Floppy-dead-nothing. I'm fine. It was nothing." She stumbled back into her room, resolving never again to return to the battlefield that was Mikey's room.


	8. Finding a way

Where it seemed that obtaining Michelangelo's blood sample was horribly easy, obtaining Leonardo's was sure to present a higher level of complexity. He seemed friendly and willing to oblige, but even a friendly turtle is not likely to succumb to an almost-stranger's unexplained request for a blood sample.

There was only one option, scarcely used in espionage unless in a mission of the desperate nature. This was to carry out the mission with a horribly short measure of stealth and to insist on a truly ridiculous explanation for the parts that were discovered, to refuse to back down on your outlandish opinion, until the subject realizes they will not get any further satisfaction from you and leaves you alone.

So while Leonardo sat by himself finishing his math homework—at which he was horribly horrendous—in the kitchen, Rebel snuck up behind him and stuck a rather lethal-looking syringe into his neck, quickly yanking it out before it was quite filled up and concealing it hastily in the ever-present cyber pack on her back.

"OW!" yelled Leo. "What did you just do? I felt a pinch!"

"I didn't do anything", answered Rebel primly. "But I did see a scorpion jump down off your chair and crawl away."

Surprisingly, the outlandish explanation was accepted. Leo put a hand tentatively on the back of his slightly-bleeding neck and turned a paler shade of green, after which he outright INSISTED that Donnie check him for scorpion poison. None was found, and it was assumed that the scorpion, rather than stinging him, had only pinched him rudely in the neck.

Donatello's situation presented an obvious answer: disguise the mission under scientific dialogue.

Rebel proceeded to pester Donnie with the story that there was a horrible disease sweeping through New York that affected namely those with enlarged brain capacity, and that she was fairly certain he was one of the most prone to it. She said that she had the special supplies in her backpack, and if he would only give her a blood sample that she would test it. Donnie proceeded to insist that he help with the testing, until she finally persuaded him that his presence would upset the results of the test and prevailed at last. She was more than a little angry that she had to go to all this trouble, only so the scientists at Doubleye could have blood samples.

By this time, Rebel had run out of creativity to use on Raphael. While the light sleeper was snoring away, the bone-tired girl staggered into his room—silently, of course—and stabbed him with an ever-handy tranquilizer, after which she drew the blood sample. She resolved to tackle Master Splinter in the morning and stumbled to bed, where she slept like a rock. Convincing a genius to give you a blood sample for no good reason is more tiring than you think.


	9. Finding the lost

Rebel walked out of Doubleye with a worried expression on her face.

The tall Canadian man had instructed her to kidnap a turtle. Shelby wanted her to KIDNAP A TURTLE.

Not a mutant turtle. Luckily it hadn't come to that. Being a non-profit government-funded agency, the Doubleye lab had run out of turtle test subjects and last week Clover the spy cat had knocked over all the vials of sample DNA. So all she had to do was kidnap Spike.

"Why can't we just get a turtle from the pet store?"

"Because we don't want to spend any money. Besides, it's only for a day."

"I could use my allowance..."

"No. We both know very well that you are saving up for those skirushen thingies."

"Shurikens. Can't I kidnap somebody else's turtle?"

"Why are you so intent on not kidnapping this animal, Rebel?"

"Because Raph'll be worried and-"

"Are you growing attached to your victim, Rebel?"

And so Rebel had pulled herself together and accepted the mission with no further argument, if only to prove her lack of affection for the so-called victims.

* * *

Rebel intended to wake up early the next morning and whisk Spike off to the agency, ready to return him before the awakening of the "victim". But she forgot that the MUO was solar-powered and there was no sun in the sewers. Thus it ran out of battery before the appointed wake-up time and Rebel ended up waking at 7.

Far too late. Raphael was already arguing with Donnie over who would get the last of the cold pizza for breakfast, a time-honored tradition that Rebel often woke to now.

Rebel decided to kidnap Spike while the turtles were training. Training was from 7:30 to 11. Surely enough time to draw a blood sample from a box turtle and return said pet to Raphael's bedroom.

At 7:45, she crept down the hall, cautiously listening to the sounds of fighting coming from the dojo. As far as the turtles knew she was still asleep.

She closed her hands around the unconcerned reptile and turned to go out of the room when a horrible noise met her ears.

The horrible noise was Raphael begging to get a break and feed his pet, and Sensei saying yes.

Quickly Rebel placed Spike back on the desk and jumped into the nearby hammock, covering herself with the blanket.

She listened as Raph placed a lettuce leaf on the desk and raced back out the bedroom door. Then she jumped (well, to be honest, it was more like falling) out of the hammock, grabbed the startled pet, and hurried to the exit, leaving a hastily scribbled note on the kitchen table.

"Gone to fight evil bad scary guys, back by lunch."

She knew nobody would worry. They were used to reading such cryptic notes as "Out of snake food gone to the amazon", or "Trapped in a bin of LEGOs, busy escaping". (The snake one had actually been true.) This note was considerably less worrisome in comparison.

Wait, why was she worried about them being worried?

She pushed the thought aside and hurried on.

* * *

Rebel returned to the lair with her hands empty of pet turtle. Apparently Spike needed vaccinations before his DNA was ready to test, and they had to wait until the anesthesia wore off before she could return him.

It was 10:30. The walk to DE had taken almost 45 minutes, and by then it was 9:15. She had dropped off the turtle, been told the news, and decided not to leave Leo alone to pacify the red-bandanna'd rage machine until she could return the beloved companion. Thus she had turned around and walked to the lair straightaway.

As she returned, the sounds of punching people's faces still had not faded. Training was still in session. She had 30 minutes to decide what to do.

She decided to read a magazine.

Leo opened the door to the dojo almost an hour later. Apparently Sensei had been displeased by their katas and demanded that they practice longer.

"Oh, you're home. Did you fight the evil bad guys?"

"No, I actually died in combat."

"Well then I suppose we should hold a funeral for you. What kind of flowers do you think you would like?"

"Pepperoni."

"What do you want for lunch?"

"I don't know...pizza?" she suggested.

"Ok. I'll order some, then."

It was all part of the daily exchange. Leo mentioned her note as she came home and she put on an act, while he played along. It usually ended with pizza.

After lunch, though, was when disaster struck.

"WHERE'S SPIKE!?"

Rebel had been prepared for this. She looked away from the TV and suggested calmly that he look under the couch.

Raph proceeded to turn the couch upside down, literally.

"HE'S NOT HERE!"

"Well, I don't know where he is."

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM, THIS IS A DISASTER!"

Rebel stood up. "Calm down, ok? He's got to be around here somewhere." _Well, he doesn't HAVE to be..._

"I'll help you look." She and Raph then proceeded to look everywhere.

Then she heard her phone ring from her room. "Hey, I'll be right back. I have to answer my phone."

"Who could possibly be calling you?"

"My...uncle..?"

Rebel grabbed the phone and answered it, aware of Raph's critical gaze. "Heeeey, Uncle...Larry! How are you?"

"Rebel, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm doing fine! Just hanging out with my friends, UNCLE LARRY. How are you?"

Shelby caught on to her charade and continued.

"This analyzation is taking longer than I thought-and we found out Spike's a female."

"Oh, that's great, Uncle Larry! How is she?"

"Still under anesthesia."

"Oh, cool, what time is the party?"

"You can come pick Spike up around 4."

"Well, I don't want to take up your time while you're getting ready! I'll just go now."

"Shelby out."

Rebel hung up and turned to Raph.

"What?"

"Whatever happened to 'friendless orphan'?"

"Oh, that was just a guy who...took care of me in Ohio while I was...wounded by my evil enemies."

"So what was that about?"

"He called to tell me his baby was born a week ago...they have a celebration party tonight, you know how parents are." Rebel gave an easy laugh.

"Okay, well, let's keep looking for Spike."

"Wow, with how you act, you'd think you were a parent yourself."

"How about you and your SNAKE, who you supposedly went to the Amazon to get food for and was back here WITHIN THE DAY?" Raph shot back.

"Well played." Rebel glanced at the clock. It was 2:45. She would leave at 3.

She and Raph looked everywhere again. And then she raced out the door.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To the library for a book on...pineapples!"

She got to DE just in time, right as Spike woke up from her stupor.

* * *

She waked back in the door with Spike in her hands.

"Guess what, I found him right in the entryway! He must've gone for a walk."

Raph grabbed his turtle from Rebel's hands. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou, I was so worried! DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" he reprimanded the turtle, and then brought Spike back to his room.

"Did you find your book on pineapples?"

"No, an alien invasion came and took over the library."

"Cool. Did you fight them?"

"They kidnapped me to the moon and I ran out of oxygen and died."

"Ok. What do you want for dinner?"

"...Pizza?"

"Ok."

And with that Leo went to order some pizza.


End file.
